All Rise...

Editor's Note

The Charge

"There is no one on the island but me."

The Case

Situations in which two strikingly different people, either of the same or
opposite sex, are thrown together in some isolated location or unique
circumstance and must come to some sort of accommodation in order to survive
have been common subjects for films. Katharine Hepburn's prim missionary and
Humphrey Bogart's dissolute boat skipper provided one good example in The African Queen. Sidney Poitier and
Tony Curtis as black and white prisoners on the run provided another in The Defiant Ones. Lee Marvin and Toshiro
Mifune played competing American and Japanese soldiers on a deserted Pacific
island in Hell in the Pacific. In 1957, the best-selling novel
"Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison" by Charles Shaw provided the source
material for a film of the same title. In this case, the two people thrown
together are an Irish nun (Sister Angela) who is working on a Pacific island
during World War II before taking her final vows and an American marine
(Corporal Allison) who has floated ashore on a life raft. The two gradually come
to appreciate each other's strengths as they deal with survival in the face of
first invading Japanese troops and then American forces intent on wresting
control of the island from the Japanese.

Much of the storyline of the film is predictable (although there are some
neat sequences such as Bob Mitchum being towed by a large turtle when he tries
to capture it), so the main pleasure of this film is watching two top-notch
acting talents interacting—the often under-rated Robert Mitchum and the
nearly always impressive Deborah Kerr. The late 1950s was prime time for Mitchum
with such stellar efforts as The Night
of the Hunter, Foreign Intrigue, Fire Down Below, The
Wonderful Country, and Home from the
Hill. He gives a beautifully restrained yet thoroughly earnest and
believable portrait of a soldier both respectful of the nature of his
companion's way of life, yet drawn to her as a woman. Similarly, Deborah Kerr
had a mainly memorable decade with roles in From Here to Eternity, The
End of the Affair, The King and
I, Tea and Sympathy, Separate Tables, and Bonjour Tristesse. Despite the
gentility that often characterized her performances, she would not have been
one's obvious choice for Sister Angela, yet in the event, she conveys the
correct sort of reverence as well as a sense of pragmatism that makes the
character seem real. Her eventual attraction to Mr. Allison is well-handled and
she makes one believe in the ambivalence that their mutual attraction has
brought about concerning about her own chosen path in life. The story of a nun
and a marine could have easily become a cliché, but in Kerr's and Mitchum's
hands, it comes across with sensitivity and delicacy. The attraction they
eventually generate is powerfully conveyed without the occurrence of any sort of
physical embrace.

Although of a similar theme to his previous The African Queen,
Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison was somewhat of a departure from the sort of
story that usually appealed to director John Huston. There was no suggestion of
a failed quest here, a theme that dominated many of his best films. In fact, the
original story seemed like too much of a potboiler to Huston, and it was only
after he saw a script version that he felt offered promise that he agreed to
direct the film. Huston was involved in a further rewrite of the script and he
concentrated on the relationship between the two principals, only injecting
short action scenes here and there to provide variety. Huston handles both
aspects of the script with skill, enhancing the former with thoughtful camera
placements and shot selection, and developing some real suspense at times in the
latter. Shooting was carried out in Tobago as part of a joint U.S.(Fox)/U.K.
production using an English crew. The completed film was well received both
critically and at the box office. Deborah Kerr was nominated for a Best Actress
Oscar, but lost out to Joanne Woodward for The Three Faces of Eve.

Fox's DVD release is part of its Fox War Classics line, and like the others
in the most recent wave of such releases, provides a fine transfer indeed. The
2.35:1 anamorphic image is colourful and bright for the most part. The variety
of greens in the jungle are particularly well rendered. Edge effects are
minimal. The source material is in fine shape with only the occasional speckle
in evidence.

The sound is fine whether you choose the English stereo or mono track.
There's a little more strength to the stereo one, particularly during the action
sequences, but both provide clear, undistorted sound. Spanish and French mono
tracks are also provided, as are English and Spanish subtitles.

The supplements include four Movietone newsreels including three of footage
of actual Pacific battlegrounds. The film's theatrical trailer plus trailers for
the other titles in the recent wave of Fox War Classics are also on the
disc.